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The CFL will look to the playoffs to provide a much-needed boost

Another CFL season is in the books, another schedule that was at least two games too long, and now we head into the playoffs. The league could certainly use a spark, and the post-season has often supplied it in the past.

Something better than last fall when the Grey Cup game produced sharply decreased viewership numbers would be nice, and also something better than this season when, for the eighth straight season, overall attendance declined.

Something good. Something optimistic. Something that could create a buzz.

There are elements in place that could make this happen. With a 13-5 Saskatchewan team first in the West and a 15-3 Hamilton squad dominating the East, the league’s two most important markets have solid representation as the playoffs begin.

Regina, we know, is now the heartbeat of the league. The Tiger-Cats, meanwhile, don’t have the overall impact on southern Ontario that the Toronto Argonauts do but at least having a first-place Hamilton team provides a meaningful presence in the Golden Horseshoe.

That east-west dynamic, which doesn’t always work perfectly, certainly plays effectively these days when the country’s east-west ties are fraying. Perhaps there will even be a “Wexit” flag waving at the Grey Cup game in Calgary later this month, and we’ll see if Justin Trudeau’s commitment to fostering better relations with Alberta extends to showing up for the game.

It has been a decent, sometimes intriguing year for the CFL on the field, with the most notable development being the arrival of a group of new, young quarterbacks. For a league that has lost the likes of Anthony Calvillo, Henry Burris and Ricky Ray in recent years, this is a crucial development.

The aforementioned Riders and Tiger-Cats have both been beneficiaries. Cody Fajardo led Saskatchewan to its second first-place finish in 43 years, while Dane Evans jumped into the starter’s role in Hamilton when Jeremiah Masoli went down and has done such a good job Masoli is likely to have a difficult time winning his job back.

At a league level, the brush strokes of commissioner Randy Ambrosie’s CFL 2.0 plan remain ill-defined, but there have been some small successes expanding the player pool to non-North American sources, there’s a broadcast deal in place with a Mexican outfit, and there’s still a drumbeat in Atlantic Canada that an expansion franchise is going to emerge. There were also reports in September that the league has reached a new multi-year deal with TSN. As long as that network’s on board, the sky isn’t falling.

The playoffs begin this weekend with Winnipeg heading to Calgary and Edmonton journeying east to Montreal, with the crossover rule again in effect because both the Argos and Ottawa Redblacks were horrible. The challenge is for these games to have a countrywide impact at a time when the teams in the country’s two largest cities have struggled through dismal seasons resulting in awful attendance.

The league averaged about 22,900 patrons per game. The B.C. Lions (5-13) averaged 17,803 fans and appear to be for sale. The Argos (4-14) drew only 12,493 per game to BMO Field, a location that was once trumpeted as a panacea for all that ailed the Toronto operation.

It’s bleak in this market. Try sitting down at a downtown sports bar in Toronto and striking up an intelligent CFL conversation. You’re not likely to find anyone who has the foggiest notion who Dakota Prukop might be, and even the return of Pinball Clemons to run the Argo organization last month created only mild waves.

Can the CFL playoffs truly have a national impact when the league is at such a low ebb in Vancouver and Toronto? It’s a challenge, and last year under similar circumstances the Grey Cup game took a 23 per cent ratings hit.

Montreal, at least, is improved with a 9-7 record and a good young quarterback in Vernon Adams Jr.. But Robert Wetenhall threw the keys on the table in May and so far Ambrosie has not been able to secure a new owner despite all kinds of rumours and promises that a new proprietor would soon be in place.

Montreal now draws less than 18,000 fans per game. That includes giving away 2,000 to 6,000 tickets for each contest, according to team executives. The club’s profile has been on the wane since Calvillo left in 2013. Needless to say, it would be an enormous shot in the arm for the Als if they could beat the Eskimos and then take out the Tiger-Cats in the East final.

That’s obviously not the plan Hamilton has in mind. The resurgence of the Ticats under the leadership of rookie head coach Orlondo Steinauer has been a terrific story for the team and the league. Steeltown is, at least for now, the strongest franchise east of Manitoba.

In Regina, Fajardo (oblique muscle) is nicked up, a worrisome note going into the playoffs, but has two weeks to heal. Calgary seems to be the likeliest opponent, and the Stampeders beat the Riders both times they played this season.

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